Rising Star Zhenia Klevitsky

Aug 10, 2009

Name: Zhenia Klevitsky

Age: 33

Organization: SE Solutions, Inc

Title: Senior director of corporate development

Nominated for: Contributing her time and expertise to numerous organizations in the federal IT community, including ACT-IAC, AFCEA and the Association of Proposal Management Professionals. Also organized the first annual Senior Government Executive Dinner, in which 10 top-level executives led an open exchange with industry representatives to identify ways to strengthen public/private partnerships.

First IT mentor: Paul Taltavull, president, SE Solutions. He has spent the past four and a half years coaching and mentoring me in business development, marketing and communications. I have learned a tremendous amount from him — more than I could learn from a lifetime of on-the-job training or education. He has been instrumental in my career, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for him.

Latest accomplishment: I'm most proud of a proposal development process that I authored for SE Solutions. I train people in our company on this process both in a classroom and just-in-time online training format. This proposal process was instrumental in one of the company’s largest deal wins.

Career highlight: When I worked at BearingPoint and built its entire enterprise architecture civilian practice by developing a unique methodology, bringing in six EA contracts (running two of them) in less than one year.

Favorite bookmark: Facebook. I love to stay connected with things going on in industry — as well as on the personal front — and Facebook is a great way to stay connected with people, even if virtually.

Dream non-IT-related job: Having my own travel TV show.

The annual Rising Star awards are presented by the 1105 Government Information Group, publisher of Federal Computer Week, GCN and Washington Technology, to public and private sector employees in the federal IT community who have gone above and beyond their job descriptions to make a lasting impact in their organization. See all the 2009 Rising Star award winners.